Chapter 34
Gage
Auryn’s purring and growling. Em’s a shell of his former self. Diego seems preoccupied, and Olly’s lost in data.
Everything’s gone to fucking hell, all because of Sneed and his fucked-up “experiments.”
Torture, more like it. Calling them experiments makes it sound like his victims were volunteers, and I know Em and Auryn too well to think for one second they’d agreed to the nightmares they went through.
I can’t even imagine … can’t fathom what that could be. Auryn’s been tight-lipped about her experiences there since she arrived, and now Em seems to be reluctant to share details with us. With me. Everyone’s fucking hiding shit from me, and it’s driving me crazy.
While Auryn and Em have some alone time, I excuse myself for some alone time of my own. I need to think.
Exercise calms my mind like nothing else. I change into some loose sweats and trot outside to run laps around the compound. The air is crisp and cool, though within minutes I’m dripping with sweat. As my feet pound the dirt, I try to process the events of the past few days.
Diego shot. Emmett captured and tortured. Auryn almost returning to the feral state we found her in, snapping and threatening anyone who comes within ten feet of Em.
Too much sadness lately. Too much pain.
All because of Sneed.
I want to rip the bastard to shreds. Gut him, string him up by his own innards, and leave him for the vultures.
Not that we have vultures here, but the image makes me feel better.
Hours pass as I run laps around our home. Long enough for Auryn and Em to do their thing, long enough for Diego to clean up after dinner, long enough for Olly to hopefully come to a conclusion on something useful. Something we can use against Sneed.
I slow my steps and head back inside. Shower next, then seek out Olly.
When I get to the lab, Olly’s sitting there staring at a slide in the microscope. His jaw hangs open, and his eyes are wide with disbelief. Whatever he’s looking at, it must be big.
“What did you find?” I ask.
He turns to me, gaping, and points at the microscope. I know I’ll have no idea what I’m looking at, but I take a peek to humor him.
Yep. It’s a blood sample. Beyond that, I’m clueless.
“Okay. I looked. What am I looking at?”
Olly points at a monitor that displays a magnified view of the slide. Why the fuck did he have me look in the damn microscope?
“See that? Right there?”
I pinch the bridge of my nose. “Olivander, please remember that I’m not as smart as you are. I have no clue what those little wiggly things are. Just tell me, okay?”
He sighs with frustration and points again. “Right there, Gage! I finally isolated the fucking protein in Auryn’s blood, the one that keeps disappearing on me.”
“Good?”
“Well, sort of good. I mean, it’s … it’s hard to believe. If I hadn’t had Em’s blood for comparison, I might never have figured it out.”
“English, please, Olly.”
“Auryn’s not an omega.”
I blink blankly at him. “What the fuck do you mean? Of course she is.”
He shakes his head. “The purring, the growling, the locking. You have to admit, she doesn’t act like your typical omega. She’s got aspects of omega in her, yes, but she’s got more alpha in her than anything.”
Great. My scientist has lost his flipping mind. “Olly–”
“Gage, I’m not crazy! The evidence is right here. I couldn’t isolate the protein earlier because I was looking for omega-type proteins. Then I saw a similar protein in Em’s blood, one of his natural alpha proteins, and it clicked. I can’t believe I didn’t see it sooner.”
“Are you saying… Auryn is … an alpha?”
Olly’s face lights up. “Yes!”
But … that means … “She’s a natural alpha, so the omega traits she exhibits …”
His light darkens. “Are traits Sneed forced on her.”
Words can’t begin to describe the rage that boils inside me. Everything we’ve seen of Sneed’s operation indicates extreme sadism, but this is so far beyond that …
He tried to wipe out her alpha nature. He tried to make her docile, pliable.
Now I understand what she meant when she said he made her into something she’s not.
“Have you told Auryn yet?”
Olly turns bright red. “She’s with Diego and Em. She said not to disturb them. Plus, I just now figured it out. I haven’t had time to go get her yet.”
Well, fuck. Now we have to interrupt playtime for the serious drop.
“Let’s go,”
I grumble, not bothering to look if Olly’s following me or not. I march down the hall to the dorms and punch in the override for Auryn’s door, sparing the barest of glances at the tangle of naked limbs on the bed before clearing my throat to get their attention.
“Lab. Now. Preferably with clothes on.”
Ten minutes later, we’re all gathered in the lab. Olly wrings his hands and paces as Auryn eyes him with keen interest. She must know this is about her.
“Come on, Olly. Let them know.”
His amber eyes dart to me, then to Auryn. She nods, and he heaves a sigh.
When he’s done explaining, Diego and Em look like they’ve both been hit by a Mack truck. Auryn’s eyes are full of tears, which would send me right to her side if she was the omega we thought she was … but she’s not. She’s an alpha in her own right, albeit an altered one, and it’s up to her to seek out any comfort she wants.
I can’t treat her like an omega anymore. Not now that I know. It would be an insult to her nature.
“Auryn?”
I say cautiously. “Do you remember that?”
She slowly nods. “A little. I was held there for so long … They did so much to me. I–I lost myself a bit. Forgot who I was.”
Her face crumples, and Diego and Em are on her in seconds. “How could I forget?”
Olly reaches out and puts a hand on her shoulder. “It’s not your fault, Auryn. What Sneed did to you–It’s a miracle you survived. Alpha and omega proteins aren’t meant to mix in the same person. The fact that your body somehow reconciled that is astonishing.”
“Mi amor … You are a fighter. Strong. Brave. Don’t punish yourself for a tiny lapse in memory.”
While the others scramble to comfort Auryn, I seethe in the corner.
Sneed took so much from us. He took Em and almost broke him. He nearly killed Diego. He warped Auryn’s body, made her into something else … He–
“Olly? Tell me something …”
My beta turns and shoots me a questioning glance. “Yeah?”
I’m almost afraid to ask, but I have to know. “Since Auryn’s not a true omega, does that mean–Can she even get pregnant?”
Okay, so this might not be the right time to ask this. I realize that as Auryn storms out of the room, Em and Diego hot on her heels. Olly looks torn, as if he can’t choose between answering his alpha’s question or making sure his other alpha is all right.
His other alpha. Their other alpha.
Not my omega. My alpha.
God, I need a fucking drink.
“I don’t know, Gage,”
Olly finally says. “I don’t even know yet if her hybrid state is permanent or temporary. What Sneed did to her isn’t exactly something that has precedent. I can’t check the medical journals and read up on other cases of an alpha-omega hybrid because there aren’t any other cases. She’s the only one.”
Olly’s not the only one who doesn’t know what to do with this data. I feel lost, useless. What does Auryn need from me? She’s an alpha in her own right. She has Diego and Em, she has Olly. Her protectors and her beta. Me? I’ve made my alphahood the core of my personality. I’ve been top dog for so long, I can’t remember what it was like not running a pack. Not being in charge. What will happen now?
Will the others leave? Start their own pack?
Fuck. This is too much to handle.
I head for the kitchen to get that drink, skipping the beers in the fridge for the stronger stuff in the cabinet. I grab a random bottle and peer at the label. Cheap vodka, but the proof is through the roof. Just what I need.
No time for a glass. I screw off the cap and tip the bottle back, gulping down several swallows before I stop to wipe my chin.
Auryn’s an alpha. She’s not an omega.
Those two facts run through my mind in a vicious loop. Alpha, not omega. Alpha, not omega.
Not my omega.
Not mine.